Posted on 08/12/2009 6:26:13 PM PDT by re_tail20
Apparently unconnected items appeared within two days of each other in the Los Angeles Times, and together confirmed my fear that American movie-going is entering into a Dark Age. The first was in a blog by Patrick Goldstein, who said: "Film critics are in the same boat as evening news anchors -- their core audience is people 50 and over, and getting older by the day. You could hire Jessica Alba to read the evening news -- or review 'G.I. Joe' for that matter -- and younger audiences still wouldn't care." The other was in a report by John Horn that despite "The Hurt Locker's" impressive box office success, "younger moviegoers are not flocking to the film, which could limit its ticket sales."
The obvious implication is, younger moviegoers don't care about reviews and have missed the news that "The Hurt Locker" is the best American film of the summer. There is a more disturbing implication: word of mouth is not helping the film in that younger demographic. It has been Hollywood gospel for decades that advertising and marketing can help a film to open strongly, but moviegoers talking with each other are crucial to its continuing success. That has been Summit Entertainment's game plan for "The Hurt Locker," which opened in a few theaters and has steadily increased its cities, becoming a real success without ever "winning" a weekend or benefiting from an overkill marketing campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.suntimes.com ...
Roger comments on today’s educational system
“If I mention the cliché “the dumbing-down of America,” it’s only because there’s no way around it. And this dumbing-down seems more pronounced among younger Americans. It has nothing to do with higher educational or income levels. It proceeds from a lack of curiosity and, in many cases, a criminally useless system of primary and secondary education. Until a few decades ago, almost all high school graduates could read a daily newspaper. The issue today is not whether they read a daily paper, but whether they can.”
Roger offers his solution
“As a remedy to pull us out of this nosedive into a gathering Dark Age, I have a simple proposal: Double teacher salaries and cut class enrollments in half.”
Roger, you old fossil, there is nothing wrong with the younger generation thinking that you elderly Baby Boomers are totally irrelevant.
They are into iPods, X-boxes, computers etc. and have their own means of entertainment without the brainwashing of the Lefty movies you have used to ruin our culture. It’s a healthy development. Hollywood could close tomorrow and other than Pixar, the younger set wouldn’t miss it.
Duuuuude?
I think he died a while back. Of course it's dark down there.
This is a real downer...sorry but I need some ice cream...
I'm only in my early 40s, but I like the old movies (that I see on Turner Classic Movies and Fox Movie Channel) far more than anything that comes out in the theaters these days.
Historical dark ages are basically ages for which no physical evidence exists. The simplest possible explanation for them is that they didn’t happen.
I agree. It came down to Freepers who gave their honest opinion and I did see it recently here in L.A.
The look on the faces of the audience was mostly ‘WTF, it was not an anti-Iraq war movie?” My GF and I were probably the only few ones who clapped afterwards.
Okay, my editor told me to review Friday the 13th, part whatever. I went and saw it. It's Friday the 13th. What else do you need to know? There's no plot except a guy in a hockey mask runs around chopping up teenagers with a machete, axe, chainsaw or whatever else the director could find at Ace hardware. Along the way, some of the teenagers do stuff like putting dynamite in his pants or nuking an outhouse he's hiding in. He keeps popping back up though, like Wiley Coyote, but with worse special effects. You already know what it is. You either like it or you don't. "
Siskel died, Ebert lived on to review again.
Neither of those matter a bit when the smaller classes taught by highly paid teachers spend 4/5 of their time on revisionist history and sensitivity issues.
Come on, if the Federal Government tomorrow morning said it was paying teachers based on how many students they had in their classrooms, there'd be thousands of teachers murdered within a month and the remaining ones would be on strike demanding class sizes be increased to standing room only limits.
The problem is that people aren't being REQUIRED to read as long as they nod when the teacher expects them to and memorize the multiple choice answers from the video the teachers assistant shows the class, they get promoted and told that they're educated.
I have a better idea, cut teachers wages to zero and pay them $2,000 for each student they have who actually masters the material for the grade level. Have randomly chosen German, Japanese, or Korean, scholars devise and grade the tests, too, not some group of "wise latinos" or "cook black folks". Just nice, harsh, impartial, scholars from some country that still produces them. Someone who really gives a damn would take a class of 60 students for themselves and make a $120,000 a year most of the time, and at least $90,000 all the time.
After making sure the teacher knows that every one of the little darlings is directly related to their own well being, give the students incentives. Say, $1000 in a savings account at any bank they select if they master the material, and there you have it, a realistic way to make huge cuts in the cost of education, pay teachers more, and even get students not stone stupid to give a damn.
Regards
The only music you hear is what little music the characters themselves are shown playing on their own stereos ("stereos"??? Now, does that make me old, or what?), so there's none of the usual stage-setting undertone (ala the "Jaws" theme) to prime your expectations. No soundtrack - things just happen, just like in life. Few filmmakers can do that well. This one did.
Indeed. Ebert has had recent health problems, and it appears he's tenaciously worked his way through them (from what little I know). He's also worked very hard on his weight with success. I honestly congratulate him on that, and wish him a happy - and rapid - retirement.
Siskel did have my favorite movie-review-quip: "Twelve Monkeys goes five monkeys too far!". (He later gave it a positive review upon a second viewing.)
Yes, but their union teachers taught them the important stuff - like "earth day" and global warming and all the other liberal bull... One day I realized young people believe newspapers are killing trees - they really mean it. These brain dead young think newspapers are cutting down 500 year old redwood forest. Their "teachers" told them. Really - they don't "get" the crop concept...
American movie-going entered its dark age decades ago.
From the man who wrote the screenplay for that Academy Award nominee film, “Beyond The Valley Of the Dolls”. Ebert is a lefty.
You’re spot on for the most part, especially the sound effects. I was leery at first because the liberal reviewers like the NYT, Village Voice, NPR, Ebert. Washington comPOST gave it thumbs up.
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